Thoughts on modern aluminium bike frames?

[WillowOz]

Hi all from a new member to the forum from Tuggeranong in the ACT.

I am looking to upgrade my Merida Scultura 4000 (2018 model) to a new mid-range bike. I'm a middle aged male who rides no more than 100km, but generally in the 60km range depending on free time, at a speed around 25kph avs so I'm certainly not pretending to be an athlete.

I was simply going to upgrade to the Merida Reacto 5000 as I've been riding Merida's since I rediscovered my love for riding starting with a Crossway flat-bar about 10 years ago. I can't fault the quality for price of the Meridas. However, in doing my research to justify the roughly $4k spend to the Minister of Finance, the BMC Teammachine ALR One Road Bike with aluminium frame came up with good reviews.

Any "modern" aluminium frame riders out there? What's your thoughts?

Thanks
Willow

[Tim]

I think a twelve year old aluminium Cannondale CAAD9 could still be considered a "modern" bike.
It's still one of my favorite bikes to ride. I rode it this morning and thrashed the bunch up my favourite 1km, steep hill.
I love it.
A well kitted-out high level aluminium frame compares favourably with anything carbon frames have to offer. Maybe not quite so aerodynamic but comparable weight can be achieved if not bettered with good wheels and fit-out.
A well designed and good fitting aluminium frame can be just as comfortable as carbon (or steel) contrary to popular belief. Combining carbon bars, forks and seatpost with an aluminium frame helps quieten the road chatter.

[Mr Purple]

I went through this about a year back - and upgraded my 2008 alloy 105 road bike to a Bowman Palace disc Ultegra build.

Apart from having this misfortune to buy a frame from a company that went bankrupt shortly after, and is now the topic of a Youtube video about how bad the build quality is and that it's going to try to kill me, my family and possibly the neighbours, I haven't regretted a minute.

The money saved on the frameset ($1100 versus a minimum $3000 for a carbon equivalent) let me spec carbon wheels, bars and seatpost, and my whole build came in at 7.9kg for under $4k. It rides well without any issues with ride comfort - I spent the whole of last week on a rental carbon Trek Emonda which retails at about $4500 for 9.5kg with 105 componentry and the Bowman is more comfortable and much faster.

Having said that I took my old alloy/alloy bar Avanti out when I snapped a shifter cable a few months back and noticed the road buzz was much worse on that. It gave my ulnar nerve numbness for the duration of the ride and literally unscrewed my dental implant from its peg in 70km, so that wasn't great. I would recommend carbon bars on an alloy frameset as a priority.

Just don't buy a Bowman and you'll be fine. Want to buy a cheap Bowman frameset? Just kidding...

[cyclotaur]

I rode a BMC ALR 105 (rim brake) in France in 2018 and it was a great ride. Did about 800 kms in 12 days, including Mt.Ventoux, so I gave it a solid workout. Current model probs has discs (?) so will no doubt be around 9kg.

I also still ride my old 2011 Cannondale CAADX bike which can take up to maybe 35c tyres to kill any road buzz, but to be honest, it's already a pretty cruise-y ride on 28s. With a lighter wheelset I've had the weight well under 9kg at times over the years.

If you can find one the TREK ALRs (Emonda or Domane) are reputedly very good bikes, and quite light if you can find an older rim brake version.

[warthog1]

I have a ribble 7005 winter aluminium frame with 5800 105 on it.
Like this;
Aliexpress carbon forks, 3T bars and aluminim thomson elite seat post.
It is comfortably under 9kg and rides fine. The frame was something like $250-.
I have 2 other carbon roadies with better wheels in them that are slighty faster, but that is largely down to the wheels.
One of them is a second hand TCR off ebay.
So much brand snobbery and nonsense in cycling.
You can safely disregard much of it imo.
Get what you want and if someone else wants to look down their nose at it they can be ignored.

[familyguy]

Massive caveat here about geometry and such. Unsuitable geometry is going to cause more issues than frame material. Sure, my aluminium bike is fast, but after 90km it gets a bit hard on the neck cause of the low front end. I'd happily do 100+ on one of the steel ones that's built taller at the front. That comes to match fitness as well.

Have owned the following combos:
full carbon fibre
aluminium with carbon fibre rear stays and fork
aluminium with full carbon fibre fork
aluminium with carbon fibre fork and alloy steerer
titanium with full carbon fibre fork
full steel

Went looking for a fast bike recently, ended up with aluminium because I couldn't justify the cost. An aluminium frame/carbon fork combo at $300 second hand was bang on. Built a sharp, fast bike for less than $900 (without wheels).

That said, the BMC do look nice. Given their rep I'd reckon they've done their homework and not got an off-the-factory-rack frame to rebrand.

[WillowOz]

Thanks all for the responses thus far, great info!

[LateStarter]

Any "modern" aluminium frame riders out there? What's your thoughts?

Thanks
Willow

My 2008 Cannondale Touring bike is still good for a slow 200km Audax, a gravel grind, a dash to the shops with panniers though it doesn't get any touring these days. Don't tell the Minister for Finance but I sometimes, with the benefit of hindsight, wonder why I needed #2 & #3 (below), as nice as they each are. Cannondale has the Al frame, steel fork, drop bars and semi mountain bike triple drive train. After an infrequent clean it still looks almost new.

[nickobec]

Big fan of aluminium bike frames, been riding a Canyon Ultimate AL8 for almost 10 years. When Canyon phased out the Ultimate AL I bought an Ultimate AL SLX.

I also own a couple of steel bikes and a couple of carbon fibre, and have ridden a few high end carbon frames. My Canyons are more comfortable that my CF aero bike of similar vintage on rough country roads.

Weight wise, aluminium is not a big penalty. At few years back at a local crit race, my friend had a new bike and another friend decided to have a weigh in, after weighing a few friends CF bikes they ask to weigh my AL8 with alloy wheels. They were surprised that an alloy bike with alloy wheels weighed the same as the lightest CF bike 7.5kg. Then they realised I had a full bidon in my cage (will admit small frame, SRAM red, weight weenie brakes, very light wheelset, saddle etc)

[mechkbfan]

+1 to CAAD builds

7kg CAAD12
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bikeporn/comme ... le_caad12/

Sure they spent a lot of money on components but I'm sure you could do 8kg for a lot less with second hand parts, etc.

[trailgumby]

Depends on the manufacturer and the design. Some do alu. well, others less so. A lot is attributable to wheels, components and tyre pressures.

My 2009 Cannondale CAAD9 is my most comfortable ride. It has carbon bars and seatpost (27.2mm), and springy wheels with 20F and 24R thin, bladed spokes at high tension. Very comfortable on our crappy chipseal roads around Kuringgai Chase NP.

My 2014 Jamis Supernova is carbon, but with alloy Ritchey bars and 31.6mm Thomson seatpost, and 32 spoke straight gauge spokes. 2kg heavier than the CAAD9, but a different use case (CX vs road), so the seat stays are quite stocky.

I run the same 25mm Conti GP5000s tyres on both bikes, but have to go 10psi less on the Jamis to get the same level of comfort. Some of that might be the slightly wider inside width of the rims (19mm vs 17mm on the Pro-Lite wheels on the CAAD9), but there is definitely less flex and shock absorption with the Jamis, despite it being carbon framed.

[AndrewCowley]

Sadly though, aluminium framed bikes have not escaped the past 2 years of price hikes. The 105 equipped Trek ALR 5 costs nearly the same as I got my Ultegra equipped carbon SL 6 for 3 years ago.

So I’d still not be buying right now unless I had to. Also there’s hardly any manufacturers doing aluminium frames any longer, but at these prices, I’d happily pay extra for carbon if I had to buy a bike today.

[g-boaf]

Big fan of aluminium bike frames, been riding a Canyon Ultimate AL8 for almost 10 years. When Canyon phased out the Ultimate AL I bought an Ultimate AL SLX.

I also own a couple of steel bikes and a couple of carbon fibre, and have ridden a few high end carbon frames. My Canyons are more comfortable that my CF aero bike of similar vintage on rough country roads.

Weight wise, aluminium is not a big penalty. At few years back at a local crit race, my friend had a new bike and another friend decided to have a weigh in, after weighing a few friends CF bikes they ask to weigh my AL8 with alloy wheels. They were surprised that an alloy bike with alloy wheels weighed the same as the lightest CF bike 7.5kg. Then they realised I had a full bidon in my cage (will admit small frame, SRAM red, weight weenie brakes, very light wheelset, saddle etc)

If it brought my medium size Canyon it would be 1.5kg less than yours. But very illegal - however no weight weenie components. Aside from weight, the comfort of that bike is what sets it apart.


Given prices and availability now I think I’d just go carbon frames and be done with it. Checking recently I saw some decent priced carbon bikes, in the area of $4K quoted by the OP. Canyon ultimate as well.

[nickobec]

If it brought my medium size Canyon it would be 1.5kg less than yours. But very illegal - however no weight weenie components. Aside from weight, the comfort of that bike is what sets it apart.

With alloy wheels my AL8 tips the scales at just over 7kg, with my race carbon tubulars it is illegal, and that is without the carbon bars or lightweight seat post, with which the AL8 (which cost me $2k in current staste) is probably close to your medium Canyon Ultimate.

I find the AL8 a very comfortable ride for me. If I ride a "compliant" carbon frame like a Scott Addict RC I find the compliance unnerving, I need direct connection with power to my real wheel.

Given prices and availability now I think I’d just go carbon frames and be done with it. Checking reverting I saw some decent priced carbon bikes, in the area of $4K quoted by the OP. Canyon ultimate as well.

My advice to the OP, is ride as many bikes as possible, find the frame time that suits you, (it might be a compliant CF framer or a stiff AL frame, or something in between), same with the preferred group set brand and work from there.